This year’s NCAA Championships take place March 16-18 at Scottrade Center in St. Louis. Bucknell qualified four wrestlers for the event. Junior 141-pounder Tyler Smith, senior 157-pounder Victor Lopez, freshman 184-pounder Garrett Hoffman, and junior 197-pounder Tom Sleigh will represent the Bison. The top eight finishers in each weight class earn All-America honors. Current assistant coach Kevin LeValley (7th at 149 in 2011) was the last Bison to be named an All-American..

• Five different Bison wrestlers have combined for eight All-America certificates.

• Bucknell finished in 32nd place out of 72 scoring teams at last year’s NCAA Championships at Madison Square Garden.

• Bucknell has now had at least two NCAA qualifiers in 11 straight years.

NCAA Qualifiers

• With four NCAA qualifiers this year, Bucknell has now had 86 individual NCAA berths. Thirty-eight of those berths have come in the last 11 years by 17 different wrestlers. Tyler Smith and Tom Sleigh are each making their third straight appearance at the national tournament, Victor Lopez will compete for a second time, and Garrett Hoffman is making his debut.

How They Qualified

• Tyler Smith earned an automatic berth to the NCAA Championships based on his fourth-place finish in the 141-pound bracket at the EIWA Championships. The top five wrestlers in the weight class earned automatic berths.

• Victor Lopez received an at at-large berth to the NCAA Championships at 157 pounds.

• Garrett Hoffman received an at-large berth to the NCAA Championships at 184 pounds.

• Tom Sleigh earned an automatic berth to the NCAA Championships based on his runner-up finish in the 197-pound bracker at the EIWA Championships. The top four wreslers in the weight class earned automatic berths.

• No. 13 seed Tom Sleigh will wrestle unseeded Cash Wilcke (16-11) of Iowa in the first round. Sleigh and Wilcke have never met. The winner will face the winner of No. 4 Jared Haught (Virginia Tech) and whichever wrestler emerges from the pigtail match between Tanner Orndorff (Utah Valley) and Matt Williams (Cal State Bakersfield).